New Year: 2007

Yet again I failed to take any photos during an important holiday. This is clearly a sign that I need a new camera to give me inspiration. And this past weekend I found out that Nanny needs a new camera. Needs! And so maybe if the New Year brings her one then I can take her old one off of her hands for her. It's just an idea. I have a lot of ideas.

So anyway, I thought we should go back in time to celebrate the New Year. This picture is to show you how far he's come in two years. It was taken when he was almost 4 months old in January 2005. It seems simultaneously like 1 million years and 1 day ago.

We have just returned from a nice vacation in Indianapolis where we met Nanny & Gampy for a New Year Jaunt. We met at the Carribbean Cove Indoor Water Park where The Goose entertained himself in the wading pool water fountains (under the watchful eye of paternal grandparents) and The Dad and I flailed our bodies down slippery and bright yellow, green, and blue tubes into 80-degree water full of people half our age.

And here are the three pictures I have to prove that we did this:

Dad & JEB taking a wading pool break.

Gampy & JEB checking out bikinis.

Nana & JEB putting out fires in the hotel (with a loon). Yes, Nanny has a broken arm -- she did that on Christmas day trying on her new (slippery) socks.

There were a lot of other events ... the children's museum, the regular pool in the hotel, but you'll just have to wait on those until Nanny has time to upload her photos with her one good arm.

Today The Goose and I played together all day. First here at home, then at the playground, where there was a little bit of a discrepancy about whose turn it was on the slide, and who had the right to claim a turn, and just generally what Mama finds to be appropriate (or NOT) about turn taking on playground slides. There was one time out, a lecture, and then an unprobed-for apology in the car on the way home. When he says "I sorry Mama" I just cannot help but pull the car over and get in that backseat with him for an Eskimo kiss.

When we got home he picked up the dad's radio and said, "10-4" clear as day. Then he ate the bun off of an all-organic, no-nitrates-or-nitrites-added hotdog, walked upstairs, said, "I so tie-yahd (tired)" (with a fake yawn, no less), and it was at this point that he caught a glimpse of the roofers who are laying our new green tin roof. Then he said, and I quote: "Oh my NO! Hobee COW. A man up theh (there). Anunna (another) man. Look! Mans (men) durkin' (working)." We think that the "oh my no" is a combination of "Oh my Lord" and "Oh no." He must've heard that from some people in the wading pool in Indianapolis. The other stuff is just general problems with pronunciation of very difficult consonants ("r" and "w" in particular) and an overuse of the plural noun rule. Irregular nouns (and verbs) are always late in the acquisition process.

There's not much other family news of late. There's still a whole lot of talking -- usually the object of the verb is a pronoun whose antecedent is placed AFTER the entire sentence (kinda like Yoda, but not quite). Here are some examples:

"I bonk it. Head."

"I eat it. Prune."

"I dink it. Appa juice."

"I push it. Girl." (remember the turn taking story? -- well, now you have the soundtrack)

I cannot get enough of it, I'm telling you. I am always recording it and promising to analyze the grammar because it is so fascinating. But then there's usually a catastrophe to attend to in the meantime and I end up losing the tape or forgetting about it altogether. Until Thursday night, when I try to throw together a week's worth of memories and happenings and commentary.

And so you have it.